We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for six years now1, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for March 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,

You can feature your work in our magazine2 by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendars series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

Ides of March

“The Ides of March is a fun way to remember the middle of the month, despite the negative connotation. Who doesn’t love a little Caesar in their life?” — Designed by Craig Brooks3 from Orlando, FL.

Happy St. Patricks Day

“We wanted people all around the world to enjoy March with this dashing (and green!) St. Patrick’s Day wallpaper. Though March 17th is on a Monday, start getting reading for it the Irish way! Hope you guys like it :)” — Designed by Printsome348 from United Kingdom.

Better Luck With Beer

“And Shepherds we shall be, for thee my lord, for thee. Power hath descended forth from they hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out they command. So we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patri, et fili… et spiritu scanti.” — Designed by Chris Macholz from Fuzz416 from New York.

It’s Always Someone’s Birthday

“I’ve been designing graphic patterns lately and wanted to incorporate one of them in my wallpaper this month. The colours I applied sparked the idea to go with a party and cake theme. I figured this one would be fun for anyone who’s celebrating their birthday this month.” — Designed by Tina Eriksson562 from Stockholm, Sweden.

The Spring

“Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets. Not to mention the bitter cold here in Nebraska has had be wishing for Spring lately! The sooner Spring gets here, not only will milder weather be here, but so will my college graduation! I just can’t wait!” — Designed by Alyssa Hernandez733 from Omaha, Nebraska.

The Collection of Birds

“The collection of birds are my travels. At each destination I buy a wood, bronze, stone bird, anything the local bazaars sell. I have all gathered at a modest vitrine in my house. I have so much loved my collection, that, after taking pictures of them I then designed each one, then created a wallpaper and overdressed a wall of my living room. Now my thought is making them as a desktop wallpaper and give them to you as a gift.” — Designed by Natasha Kamou744 from Hellas.

MARCHing Forward!

“If all you want is a little orange dinosaur MARCHing (okay, I think you get the pun) across your monitor, this wallpaper was made just for you! This little guy is my design buddy at the office and sits by (and sometimes on top of) my monitor. This is what happens when you have designer’s block and a DSLR.” — Designed by Paul Bupe Jr887 from Statesboro, GA.

Join In Next Month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

The Smashing team loves high-quality content and cares about the little details. Through our online articles, Smashing Books, eBooks as well as Smashing Conferences, we are committed to stimulating creativity and strengthening the web design community’s creative forces.

Rob

Laura

Jess

Each month I start with selecting a wallpaper on Smashing magazine. And every next months it becomes harder and harder. Perhaps it’s a new style in graphic design but I absolutely don’t like it. Ugly characters, strange composition, awful colors…. Hope next time you will make wallpaper collection considering different tastes but not only one.

Madan

Brad

I know it sounds like some sort of (de)motivational slogan but there’s No U in Fourteen on Lego Land :)

Tough choice this month as we are on the first day of Autumn. (Southern hemisphere) . Though I do like Crazy Enough
Often I go back a few months to find something relevant but maybe a few wallpapers/designers could feature the southern hemisphere seasons?

LuCheZar

Rohini Chaudhury

My desktop has always been adorned by wallpapers featured on Smashing Magazine and March’s collection is simply wow. Congrats to all those whose designs have been featured. My faves are: Bye bye black clouds, The Spring (because Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets too) & Wireless Spring (that was just way too awesome).

truthkim

Kristina

I want to thank you for always having the most beautiful and inspiring set of monthly calendars! I don’t love how quickly the year goes and starting a new month always seems hard, but your calendars just brighten me up and get me excited for the first work-day of the month. This month, I’m loving Crazy Enough because I really needed a bit of a pep-talk…thank you.

dasachan

Grant

As usual, some stunning designs and ideas.
Unfortunately, too many of them are related to Spring, and therefore pretty useless here, as Summer has ended and Autumn begun.
Come on Southern Hemisphere designers, help us out :-0

dbtchob

Chris

It made me sad that Color It has some anti-aliasing issues which make it impossible to color it (easily) digitally. I was excited to open it up in Photoshop and just plop some colors with the paint bucket tool as a fun time-waster during lunch.

Then, I found myself zooming-in and paint brushing because of my own neurosis. :)

Markus Seyfferth

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